I can’t speak/read Russian, so I can’t make judgements on the translations… so truckload of salt to be taken:
I listened to the audiobook and I felt it mooted the point of the Author on keeping the various character ‘voices’ intact. Adding an interpretation of the narrator really helped bring everyone to life. I know it’s an added layer but made the whole thing so dramatic and added so much color.
Would recommend listening to such ““dry”” classics!
That’s one of the reasons why I typically avoid English translations of books. And sometimes Portuguese ones*; dunno, the Italian ones often get better things like idiosyncratic speech. For me the difference was night and day for this book: I read it first in Portuguese (from Martin Claret’s editorial house), and… well, it’s a mess. The Garzanti one in Italian gets it right, though - like, Vanja sounds smart, Alëša sounds idealist, you don’t just see this just through what they’re saying but also how they’re saying it.
And what I said above regarding idiosyncratic speech applies to other stylistic aspects.
*The major exception is, for me, Clarice Lispector. She was so fucking good at this, that reading Interview with the Vampire in the original was actually a let-down. Sadly I don’t recall her translating Russian stuff.
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